When Vancouver's Granville Island was redeveloped 35 years ago, it was a major breakthrough for the city. But things have steadily declined ever since, largely due to benign neglect. ...Read the full article
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Clete Purcell from vancouver, Canada writes: You say that "things have steadily declined since" Granville Island was redeveloped 35 years ago. Your "gut" feeling is wrong - barney. Millions of Vancouverites love the island and will continue to visit - despite (or maybe because of) the macrame.
Tell that to PPS, who named it one of the greatest public spaces in the world.- Posted 28/03/08 at 2:56 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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Joe Lousa from Canada writes: Have to agree with the above poster and not the author on this one. Granville Island if anything is suffering from it's popularity. The reason you hear a lot of people say they don't go there anymore is because it's too busy (which means there are other people going there). I agree it does need refreshing/modernizing like anything would after 30yrs. Nothing major is needed though. I believe should the streetcar Phase 0-2 come to fruitation it would do wonders for Granville Island.
- Posted 29/03/08 at 12:06 AM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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F/A josquin from van, Canada writes: Well, I can't afford it anymore--------boomer heaven this market.
It has become just another expensive outlet in a pretty setting. Doesn't deserve the name 'market' anymore.
Mirriam Webster-------(1): a public place where a market is held; especially : a place where provisions are sold at wholesale
As all areas, it has gentrified--------lost it's raison d'etre.
Honest to goodness markets find their own spots. I am sure there are many springing up all over the city, of their own accord.
Leave this one to aging, well off locals, and wandering tourists.- Posted 29/03/08 at 11:11 AM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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F/A josquin from van, Canada writes:
Go there if you want a designer hat, or a hunk of very expensive cheese.
Sure it's colourful, it's noisy, it's manufactured, rule-heavy quaint.
A vibrant 'market' it is not.
It's a stilted, govt run operation.- Posted 29/03/08 at 11:18 AM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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Name Witheld from Vancouver, Canada writes: Noisy, manufactured, rule heavy and quaint - I could not agree more with this sentiment, or the article's author.
The market itself is far too small for the number of visitors that it receives - particularly on weekend mornings, when all manner fo vancouverites jam into the cluttered buildings with scooters, baby carriages, children and pets (despite signs stating that only working dogs are allowed). Couple this with the innate self-absorbtion and incivility of Vancouverites, and it turns into a frustrating mess. Shopping becomes a full-contact sport, with tax-dollar subsidized merchants repackaging and selling average quality foodstuffs goods at exorbitant prices to aging boomer yuppies who drive across town in monster SUVs to shop there, and be part of 'the scene'.
Compared to Marche Jean Talon, or the St. Lawrence market with their broad aisles, and well organized and well-maintained stalls, Granville Island market is a failure and a joke. The rest of the island is scarcely better, with a working concrete plant located in the middle of the chaos - just to make things 'edgy' and interesting.- Posted 31/03/08 at 3:54 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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